Hootin' Anni's Day Trippin' : Cotton Gin

Bud and I went hawk hunting the other day....driving the back roads in the area known as Chapman's Ranch, then, we decided to cross the causeway bridge and drive into Padre Island National Seashore [a federal, national, park].

CHAPMAN RANCH

Chapman Ranch, at one time, was a small community, now incorporated into the Corpus Christi City Limits. Chapman Ranch is on Farm Road 70 in southeastern Nueces County. It is so named for a family that purchased 34,000 acres of the King Ranch [King Ranch has 825,000 acres] in 1919. Today the shell of the town, Chapman's Ranch, no longer exists, but a few abandoned buildings remain. Oil wells, cotton farms, small farm homes - large ranch houses, and a few cattle dot the landscape. On this particular day, the cotton fields were partially harvested and seen were the yellow cotton bales scattered here and there. A couple of operating cotton gins are seen driving from the intersection of County Road 70 to Interstate 69/State Hwy 77. Many many farm to market roads and county roads can be driven on...and yes, on any given day during the entire year, there are other birders out there with their scopes and binoculars....hunting for hawks and falcons [among other bird species].

The birds we sighted were, White Tailed Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, Starlings, Doves, Sparrows, Crested Cara Caras, Sea Gulls, Purple Martins, Grackles, To show you some in photos...

White Tailed Hawk - Swainson's Hawk in Flight - Purple Martin

Read More on the History of the Chapman Ranch/King Ranch Secrets [Texas Monthly Online]
Elevation of the ranch area is shown to be 26 feet above sea level....Corpus Christi is about 7 feet elevation...while, of course, the park [PINS] is sea level!!!

This 'leg' [the ranch area] of the hawk hunt was about a 50 mile round trip. Once back into the city we headed south and eventually paying the fee to enter through the gates of Padre Island National Seashore National Park. Here, we saw only ONE hawk both coming and going, but we pulled off onto the beach at the end of the road [as far as a two wheeled drive vehicle can go], and enjoyed a bit of the surf. After an hour or so there, walking along the shore, we left and pulled off toward Laguna Madre before leaving the park boundaries. This trip added about 50-60 more miles on the odometer....I'll share some more photos in my upcoming post!!

Quite a few weeks ago, I showed photos of some of the cotton fields seen around the outskirts of the city. Well, they've all been harvested by now, and the fields are plowed for the next growing season. I've seen cotton bales just within the last two or three weeks...but, nothing like you see from yesteryear. They're baled in rolls now-a-days and wrapped in yellow plastic for protection from the elements before hauled and shipped out through the railroads and/or ships in the harbor....

Near Chapman Ranch, about 20 miles from Corpus, the area still has a standing and operating Cotton Gin. We've driven by it many times while heading toward Kingsville, Texas and farther south. But that isn't my post today. Remember when I posted a photo of a Quonset Hut? Behind that hut, by several hundred yards, I spotted a building of galvanized material that resembled by shape, a cotton gin. Right in the middle of a busy street!! I couldn't get it out of my mind. I searched the internet with local interest and found nothing on the history of the area. Then, one day while perusing our local newspaper online, I come across Corpus Christi in History...and clicked on it. There, in the annals of some articles, was an advertisement under the job listings...dated: circa late 1940s early 1950s [I can't recall the exact date]. It was an advertisement for jobs at a cotton gin....on what is now a city street here in town that I saw what I thought was an abandoned gin at the time of photographing the Quonset Hut!!! The address in the ad told me I was correct in assumption. I just had to drive back and try and get some photos while still not trespassing. All that much. lol

I pulled the car into a parking lot across the street from the Quonset Hut...grabbed my camera and crossed the street. I first took photos from the sidewalk, using my zoom lens. Then, either stupidity or bravery grabbed my psyche and I walked beyond the sidewalk, between the Quonset Hut and a large shed, then snapped a few more photos. By the time I took two or three photos I began leaving as quickly as I could, and behold...a city worker was mowing the high grass from the sidewalk! With the mowing, he helped me out somewhat, revealing an OLD railway track! I took photos of those tracks, still well hidden in the freshly mowed grass. I'm really surprised I didn't trip and fall on them beforehand, and would still like to know the history of this particular cotton gin....

The Chapman Ranch Historical Marker
South Texas Cotton Gins
King Ranch - a Fortune Made Smuggling Cotton!